Smartphone manufacturers are constantly upgrading their products in order to stuff the best hardware available in the market. We’ve reached a stage where phones are running on 6GB of RAM and incredibly powerful processors. At the same time, designers are diminishing sizes and creating astonishingly thin smartphones. Hence, this eventually leads to inconsistent and awful heat management that causes a vast number of issues, making the phone dysfunctional and futile in some cases. That’s why when your Android smartphone or tablet heats up.

Your phone overheats. But is it happening all by itself, or do you have apps running in the background that you don’t know about? Perhaps you’re gaming too much, or the environmental conditions are too extreme… the fact is, it’s difficult to pinpoint just why your smartphone is overheating.

Why Your Android Phone Is Heating Up

There may be in fact a lot of possible reasons why your Android phone keeps heating up. However, some reasons are much more prominent than others. They include the following the TOP ones:

Problems with the USB cable, charger or battery (Android battery overheating)

If your Android phone is heating up while charging (and it doesn’t happen in any other situation), there is certainly something wrong going on with either your battery or USB cable.

If your Android phone’s heating up causes battery drain (your battery lasts much shorter than it used to and you have to recharge it more often), then you can be sure that it’s either battery or your USB cable. Here is what you need to do:

  • Charge your phone with a different charger (and a different USB cable) and check if it keeps heating up. If everything comes back to normal, then you need to buy a new USB charger
  • Buy a new battery or a new phone. If you have been using your phone for more than two years, its battery life will certainly be worse. If you have a removable battery, you can buy a new one. If your phone is of unibody construction, you may consider buying a new Android phone.
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You are using your phone too heavily (Android CPU heating)

The fact that your Android phone keeps heating up doesn’t have to mean that it is due to its battery. It may as well be the CPU which is heating your phone. The easiest way to check that is to install some heating control app (I will talk about it in more detail below) and see the temperature of your CPU (and its usage). and your battery.

Playing HD games for a very long time may contribute to your Android phone heating up.

In some cases it’s completely normal for a phone to heat up (it doesn’t have as effective cooling systems as desktop or laptop computers do). These situations include the following:

  • Playing HD (and advanced in terms of graphics) games for a long time.
  • Shooting HD or 4K videos for a long time (30 minutes or even more).
  • Playing games while charging your phone (not recommended).
  • Having lots of features turned on (and not necessarily using them all) like Wi-Fi, mobile data, Bluetooth and so on.
  • Having lots of apps and games installed (with almost full memory).

External conditions may impact your Android phone overheating too.

External conditions in which you use your Android phone do have impact and can contribute to your Android phone heating up. The main two include:

  • The environment of 25 and more degrees of Celsius. When in my room the temperature is over 25 degrees both my phone (Samsung Galaxy S7) and my laptop start to heat up. I hope I don’t need to remind you there that you SHOULD not leave your phone in the direct sunlight in the summer.
  • The wrong protective case may also result in your Android phone heating up. Remember that the protective case cannot be too hermetic or the heat produced (especially during more difficult tasks like playing games) won’t be released.
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How To Solve The Android Heating Problem

Obviously, there isn’t one simple solution to the problem of heating of Android phones. It all depends on what causes your phone (its battery or CPU) to overheat or heat up.

Below you will find three possible fixes:

Android Heating Problem Fix No.1: Install Android Heating Control App

The first thing you need to do to solve the heating problem is to detect whether it’s your Android battery or CPU heating (or both). To do that:

Once you download and install the app, you will be able to analyze in depth what causes your Android phone to overheat.

Take a look at the short video where I am showing you a good Android heating control app (Cpu Temperature).

Thanks to this app, you will know if it’s your battery or CPU overheating and will know what to do next.

Install Android Heating Control App

Fortunately, there are quite a few good Android heating control apps that will let you cool down your CPU temperature if it’s impacted by some apps running in the background.  Here is what you need to do:

On the example below you can see CPU Cooler Master – Phone Cooler. As you can see the app measures CPU temperature and lets you detect background apps that may heat up your phone CPU.

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Android Heating Problem Fix No.2: Clean Your Phone & Apps Installed On It

One of the most often reasons why your Android phone may be overheating are apps installed on it.

If you have installed tens of apps and games you no longer use (and you also installed apps outside of Google Play and these apps may be malicious) you are unnecessarily overloading your phone’s CPU. Here is what you need to do:

  • Take a look at all the apps installed on your phone and uninstall any app you don’t use. To make uninstalling easier, you might use app called Easy Uninstaller.
One possible Android heating problem fix is to use a good cleaner app.

Adjust All The Settings For Optimal Use

The rule of thumb here is very simple. Don’t enable a feature unless you are going to actively use it. Each feature, when enabled, consumes some CPU resources and overloads your phone in some way.

If there are just too many such features enabled (in addition to useless apps running in the background), you device may quickly end up overheating.  This relates to features such as:

  • Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi in itself doesn’t make your phone heat up but can have a cumulative effect as part of other features running wild in the background).
  • Mobile data. Here the case is similar to Wi-Fi. If your phone is connected to the Internet it still may do some Internet-related tasks in the background (like updating).
  • Bluetooth.
  • Location.
  • NFC.
  • Mobile hotspot.
  • Synchronization. 
Turning unnecessary features off may prevent your Android phone from overheating.

Of course, if you leave all of the above features turned off you might not receive notifications when you want to (e.g. if you turn syncing on) but your phone will not be overloaded so much.

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Summing up what we have already talked about:

  • Don’t play games or shoot HD movies when your  phone is charging.
  • Use some Android heat control app.
  • Make sure that only the features you need and use are enabled.
  • Get rid of all the unnecessary apps from your device.
  • Use a good protective case.
  • Make sure your phone isn’t exposed to external heat (especially direct sunlight).
  • Make sure your charger and USB cable are OK.
  • Is it your Android battery heating up or CPU? Make sure to know the answer.